


With Strange Aeons

by Venus



Category: Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Genre: NaNoWriMo, Novel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2011-05-10
Updated: 2011-05-30
Packaged: 2017-10-19 06:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/197766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Venus/pseuds/Venus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cult members flock to New York City, following rumors that Cthulhu's reptilian offspring - the only ones who can revive him - have ties to the Foot Clan. While Karai, Hun and the NYPD struggle with the cult, the Turtles discover something strange in the Massachusetts woods near Casey's farmhouse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My 2008 NaNoWriMo novel. It's incomplete for now, because I'm still fixing it up.
> 
> Set during the Fox cartoon, directly after City at War.

Part 1.

"So we're hiding behind this dumpster, watchin' these guys, waiting for just the right moment, and Mikey leans over and whispers 'watch this'. Like anything good ever happened after that phrase. He leaps out, all like," Raph waved his arms animatedly, "They all turn to look, he makes it like two steps and falls flat on his face."

"That was on purpose!" Mike said quickly, as April, Casey and Don started laughing.

"Yeah yeah, so you say," Raph said, chuckling. "So he's layin' there kind of flailing, doing this move like he's tryin' to swim, and all those Purple Dragons were just standing there staring at him like they can't figure out if he's faking or not, but either way they'd rather not get near him.

"Finally this one kid steps up for a closer look, and Mike wraps a nunchuck around his ankle in about 2 seconds and pulls his foot right out from under him, and Mikey gets back to his feet. The other guys decide he's fair game and they all step up, and Mikey yells -- what was it you said?"

"I don't remember," Mike muttered.

"I do - it was 'Alright you Durple Pagons!' wasn't it? And he swings his chuck up and conks himself in the head with it." Raph grinned. "That's when I decided I'd better do something. I took two of 'em down while they were still staring at Mikey in shock."

"I'm telling you, it was all a tactic to confuse them!" Mike protested. "Anyway, they've gotten too used to us. It used to be that just seeing us was enough to distract them, and it gave us an edge. So I tried something new. It worked didn't it?"

"Yeah, I suppose. It worked on those Dragon punks, but they're all just kids. But those Foot ninja weren't impressed with your so-called performance." Raph said.

"Wait, there were Foot there?" Leo asked, showing interest in the conversation for the first time instead of vague disapproval. "You fought them?"

"Yeah, they came runnin' out once we'd taken the Dragons out."

"But we have a truce with Karai and the Foot Clan," Leo protested.

"Yeah, well we don't have one with the Purple Dragons and that's who we were fighting, we can't help it if some Foot decide to get in on the action," Raph said.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence they were there at the same time," Casey said.

"Nah, it looked like they were working together, the Dragons out in the open and the Foot behind the scenes doing the real work," Raph said.

"You might have just endangered our truce with Karai," Leo replied.

"Look, Karai didn't say nothin' about no Purple Dragons. We didn't even know the Foot were there until they came at us. We defended ourselves, what's wrong with that?" Raph said, heatedly.

"I don't like it," Leo muttered. "They shouldn't have attacked you either."

"Dudes, relax," Mike said from his spot on the floor. "We came up here for some rest and relaxation, so--"

Don nudged Mike with his toe. "You mean 'training'."

"Like I said, for some training, so let's make the most of our time," Mike finished. "That did not sound as good," he added to Don.

It was their first day at the farmhouse, and it looked like it was going to be a warm yet rainy summer. They'd arrived that morning to find the place badly in need of an airing out and a little more run down than before, but comfortable. Whenever they were at the farmhouse, half their time seemed to be devoted to making emergency repairs. Casey in particular was turning into an adept handyman -- maybe because he was trying to impress April.

The City was still stabilizing after Karai had taken control of the Foot Clan. Even though the Turtles - especially Leo - had separated themselves from the lingering fighting, Splinter thought it might be best to put some physical distance between themselves and it as well, with the hope of coming back to a safer, more balanced city. They each, privately, had hopes for Karai and a peaceful future with the Foot Clan.

Now they were looking forward to several weeks of what really was vacation time, despite Splinter's assurances that he had been dreaming up 'challenging' new training programs, and they all knew that what Splinter called challenging everyone else called evil. The farmhouse was always a welcome change from the big city, despite the fact that for a house so much bigger than their lair, it was much harder to spend any time alone. Maybe it was a side effect of the lack of a TV or the Internet.

* * *

April and Casey were coming home with groceries later that day when a summer rain started falling. It had been threatening all day - thick clouds had been rolling across the sun, creating dramatic changes from light to dark. April made a quick trip inside with the first two bags and started looking for the nearest victim - volunteer - to help her and Casey bring the rest in - it took a lot of food to feed seven, especially when the majority of them ate so much, not to mention how hard it was to plan meals - but she couldn't find anyone. They couldn't have gone out in this rain, could they? April put down her groceries and paused at the kitchen window, looking outside in shock.

"Oh my gosh, Casey!"

"What?" Casey asked, dumping his bags on the counter.

"Look at this!" April said, laughing and amazed.

Casey stood behind her and they gazed out into the open field by the house. There, in the rain, sat Splinter and the Turtles deep in meditation, as if nothing were happening.

They were silent for a long time, before Casey said, "Y'know, cool as it would be to be a ninja an' all... seein' stuff like this makes me happy to be an ordinary guy."

April smiled and patted him heartily on the back. "C'mon, let's go get the rest of the groceries."

Later that day, the Turtles finally came in and retreated to their large upstairs room, and Splinter disappeared off to do his own thing. With the windows open to ventilate the musty house it had a rainy, pleasantly natural smell. From upstairs April had been hearing sporadic laughter and raised voices with complete silence in-between and couldn't figure out what the Turtles were doing.

Casey wandered into the kitchen and opened the fridge. "Jeez, don't we have anything to eat?"

April rolled her eyes. "You went shopping with me, you picked out what you wanted, believe me."

Casey took out a can of soda and then opened it, leaning against the closed fridge. A particularly loud chorus of "Aww," came from upstairs, with Raph's voice yelling something over it.

"What are they doing?"

Casey chuckled. "You'd never believe it. I thought they were too old to play with action figures."

"You play with action figures and you're twice their age."

Casey waved his hand dismissive. "That's not the point. I don't play with action figures in such a geeky way. Just go take a look."

Slightly apprehensive, April went upstairs and found the Turtles sprawled out on the floor. They always took up a lot of space, but now it seemed like even more than usual. Dice, paper and pencils were everywhere, and some tiny mismatched figures were standing around on a piece of paper with a grid on it. Leave it to Casey to completely fail to describe a situation

"Dude, Don, you suck. You're cheating," Mike yelled.

"No he's not," Leo said.

"I just know how to make a properly balanced character," Don said, grinning. "Unlike some people."

Raph laughed. "But Mikey's been failing with that same character since he was seven years old, why change now?"

"At least I don't pick my character the way Raph does," Mike said. "'Properly balanced?' Try 'top-heavy.'"

Raph looked at the tiny plastic figure of a sexy female elf wearing an armored bikini and little else. He shrugged. "If I gotta stare at this dumb game for hours, I wanna like what I'm looking at." He stretched. "God I hope this rain stops. Why can't we have cable or something?"

"Wow, this looks really... complicated," April said.

"Yeah, it is. It's good for learning strategy," Leo said. "We started playing it years ago when we didn't really have many choices for entertainment."

"I brought all the stuff with us when I saw the weather reports," Don said, pointing vaguely at a shabby folder full of papers and a cardboard box.

"Can we call it a day already?" Raph groaned.

"We trounced Mike's monster, that's a good enough stopping point for me," Leo said.

"Agreed," Don said, and started gathering up their game equipment.

"Aww, come on," Mike said. "No fair, I should get a chance at revenge."

"Next time," Don said, sympathetically. "Use this time to think up a new strategy."

"Or at least _a_ strategy," Raph said, getting up and stretching, peering out the window at the lingering rain in the twilight.

"You always just give your monster some big, all-or-nothing over the top new attack," Don said. "We know you're gonna do it, so we prepare for it. But you don't prepare for the rest of the game."

"That's how he is, though," Mike said stubbornly. "It's supposed to work." He picked up his monster figure, a greenish dragon that was the closest he'd been able to find to the image he had of it in his mind.

Mike had created the monster when he was just a kid. It had come to him in a dream - a nightmare - night after night. But then, none of them had been sleeping well then. It had been a difficult time for them. They had just reached the age where they had really realized how different they were. They'd thought they knew all about humans from TV and books, but then Splinter began occasionally taking them to the surface late at night. They got glimpses into people's brightly lit windows. Proper homes and warmth and food That's when they really knew they were different. They had known that when a human in a horror film screamed at the sight of a monster, they were often reacting to something that shouldn't be, something unnatural, but for the first time they realized that that's how humans would react to them too.

It was kind of like hearing for the first time that Santa Claus didn't exist. But really, this was more like learning that he did exist and gave to toys to everybody but you.

That Mike should have recurring dreams of a huge, unspeakably horrible  
monster, something that by comparison would make himself and his brothers look benign and normal, all tentacles and wings and scales and things that nature never combined, was perhaps understandable. Mikey could never adequately explain it, but something in the dreams was so disturbing, so fundamentally horrific, that it seemed to go beyond the normal 'scary monster' dreams an imaginative 7 year old boy might have.

Splinter, thinking Michaelangelo was having the dreams as an attempt to understand his place as an outsider to the human world, encouraged Mike to make up stories about the monster, to focus on the monster's strengths and powers, and to make up a world where the monster fit in and had status. The dreams had faded. Mike drew the monster with stubs of crayons they'd gathered up - and had to use sparingly - and the drawing had somehow survived several floods and a move. When they'd started playing their own variation of D&D, Mike had carefully printed the monster's stats on it and used it as his avatar. Even now, Don still had somewhere, in the folder with some other tabletop gaming materials. To this day, Mike still stubbornly used the monster when they played now and then, and his brothers used it as a quick and easy way to tease him.

* * *

By morning the rain had stopped. April was just coming downstairs to the kitchen, hair mussed and yawning, to start the coffee, when the Turtles and Splinter got back from their early morning training. Early rays of sun were just starting to creep through the windows, nearly horizontally.

Mike and Raph, conspiratorially, grabbed some toast and slipped back outside before anyone could say anything about chores or more training. The woods were still damp from the rain and chilly. Raph climbed a tree and settled on a comfortable branch and proclaimed it as his territory. Mikey threw a pine cone at him for it, but Raph kicked it away. Mike climbed an adjacent tree and made a point of climbing higher than Raph.

"Hey, what's that?" Mike asked. Raph looked up at him, doing a tightrope walk on a high branch and looking at something.

"What?" Raph asked, without getting up, waiting for Mike's practical joke or punch line.

"I think I see somebody," Mike said quietly, and climbed higher for a better vantage point. "There's some people over there." He crouched down on his branch and watched.

Able to tell that Mike was serious, Raph moved quickly and quietly to a higher branch too. There were several people with backpacks, standing in a group. They seemed to be consulting a map or page of directions, occasionally glancing around as if confused.

"They don't seem to know the area, whoever they are," Raph said.

"Yeah. Let's get a closer look," Mike said. Getting closer meant going lower for a while and letting the people out of their sight, but they moved like shadows and found a couple closer trees to watch them from.

"Good thing we're naturally camouflaged here," Mike said quietly.

"What d'ya think they're up to out here?" Raph asked. They were carrying a lot of bulky gear - several had tripods strapped to their backpacks - but not necessarily camping gear. They also looked cold and sleepy and a bit confused, and they seemed to be having a long debate about how to proceed. After one gave a particularly confused gaze around, then stared at a compass again, Raph got an impulse.

"Let's scare 'em away."

Mike snorted. "What, seriously?"

"Yeah, you know, I mean purely for safety reasons. We can't have 'em coming too close to us, right? C'mon," Raph said with a wicked grin.

A minute later, several branches directly overhead the group of people shook suddenly, dousing them with water droplets.

Several of them jumped and one of them muttered, "Aww jeez." They all looked up. "Must have been a raccoon or something," a woman said, gazing up. While they were still looking up, something landed heavily in the heavy underbrush near them, making them all jump again. "And there it goes," she said in a calming voice. She had a good four decades on the rest of the group, but looked quite spry for her age and gave off a feeling of friendly authority. "Let's move a bit further north and take our first readings." They walked on for a few minutes, seven of them total, shadowed by Raph and Mike, who occasionally picked up ammunition from the forrest floor.

They stopped in an area where some flat rocks made good places to rest their equipment, and started to unpack -- notepads and several pieces of equipment that neither Mike nor Raph could identify. They were busily studying them while Mike slid into place on a high branch directly above their leader, perfectly disguised by the foliage. He waited for just the right moment - when she stepped right under him while engrossed in reading something in a notebook. Mike dropped an acorn directly onto her page with a loud plonk that had all her students turn to see what had happened. Mike immediately began imitating an angry squirrel. The chatters were so intense and lasted for so long that Raph was having trouble containing his silent laughter. The woman slipped the acorn into her pocket, while her students scanned the trees for the invisible squirrel.

When Mike had trailed off into silence and they were all engrossed in their work again, occasionally comparing notes or discussing something in quiet voices, Raph took the next action. He'd found a fallen branch on the ground. Holding one end down with his foot, he pulled the other end up until it gave an alarmingly loud crack.

"What is that?" One of the students demanded.

"It's them isn't it?" Another one demanded.

"I don't know," she said. "But if we've got what we need here, then let's move on." The students started hastily packing up their gear, and Raph created another shockingly loud snap with his branch.

"Look, something is going on!" one of them cried, after Mike launched into another round of squirrel chatter. "Is this only going to get worse as we get closer?"

Their professor shouldered her backpack. "I think we may be the victims of someone's idea of a practical joke," she said, scanning the area around them. "Use your rational thinking. If it's natural, we are understandably a bit nervous and jumpy and are seeing patterns that aren't there. If it's not, then we document it and try to see if it has a relation to what we're investigating or not. But for now, let's move. Come on, further north."

They hiked off, rather quickly, and Mike and Raph regrouped, breathless with laughter. "You really had 'em going with that squirrel bit." Then Raph quickly outlined one more plan of attack. Mike thought they'd probably had enough, and it probably wasn't a good idea to keep messing with people who suspected them already, but he was having a good time, so he agreed to do one more thing.

As the group in their bright, easily visible colors trekked on through the woods, Mike and Raph split off and followed them, slightly behind and to the sides. Then all at once, they started jogging, crashing through the undergrowth, and stepping on every twig they could. The group ahead became chaotic, grabbing onto the jackets of the people ahead of them and some breaking into a run, at the sound of the apparently very large things, which were not only following them but also had them surrounded on both sides. Mike threw pine cones as he ran, not at the group, but up into the higher branches and out to the sides, to create the sounds of things scuttling down from above or moving around further off in the woods. Raph ran with a large, springy branch, bashing it against every tree trunk he passed.

They stopped, letting the panicked students run on ahead while they laughed together silently. But when they left to walk back to the farmhouse for lunch, Mike thought he saw their professor standing still and looking back in their direction.

If anyone suspected Mike and Raph of mischief - taking off without telling anyone like that, and coming back smelling like tree sap and pine needles, laughing randomly - they didn't say anything.

But at lunch, Mike exclaimed "we saw some people in the woods!"

Casey said "whaddaya mean, people in the woods?"

They went on to discuss it, although Mike and Raph left out their practical joke. Splinter and Leo in particular were worried that people in the area, especially ones who apparently had various kinds of recording devices might compromise their safety. It was vitally important that the farmhouse remain a secret from the enemies, so that they always had someplace safe to go outside of the city in an emergency. No matter how remote the possibility seemed, that these people would reveal their secret, they decided they needed to do something. Raph thought they were over reacting, and was annoyed at Mikey for mentioning it to them at all. He privately thought they'd already done enough to scare them off.

April asked Casey if they might be trespassing on his property, but Casey said he wasn't sure where the property lines were.

So, since it was a nice day, and April and Casey had come up here for a bit of a vacation anyway, they decided that they would pretend to be regular hikers and would 'accidentally' run into the people in the woods and find out what they were up to.

* * *

"Casey! You can't bring all that with you!" April said.

"Why not?" Casey asked, looking inside his big bag of sports equipment. "I can carry it all, you know." He flexed for her.

"Because real hikers travel light! And we're supposed to be real hikers!" April protested.

"Aww, alright," Casey said, putting it down on the floor sadly.

"What do you think, Donnie?" April asked.

Don, sitting on the stairs to the upper level, surveyed her fluorescent backpack, hiking boots and canteen. "Very convincing," he said, nodding.

"What if they turn out to be bad guys?" Casey asked. "What if we run into a bear, and I have to --" he picked up a baseball bat and gave it a demonstrative swing.

"How about this?" April asked, handing Casey a wooden walking stick. Casey tested its weight experimentally.

"You can't go wrong with a big wooden stick," Don grinned. "But Casey has a point - are you sure you don't want us to come along? For all we know these people could be dangerous."

"If you'd seen 'em you wouldn't think that," Raph said.

"It's best we lay low, like Splinter said," Leo said, walking down the steps next to Don. "They're out there with surveillance equipment, and if it's us they want, it's better we stay here, out of sight."

"We'll be ok," April said. "We'll be really casual and play it by ear. First sign something's wrong and we'll be gone. Here Casey." She handed him a hatchet.

"You expect me to fight 'em off with this?"

"No, I expect you to chop firewood," April said with a grin.

* * *

Casey and April caught up to the group in about an hour and a half. The guys had been right when they said the hikers would be moving slowly and leaving a clear trail. April enjoyed the sunshine and fresh air and was only slightly nervous about the situation.

They found the group near a creek and approached while making obvious noise so they wouldn't catch anyone off guard - a trick they'd learned from their ninja friends. The students were busy taking water and soil samples and making notes, but they glanced up at April and Casey looking curious. Their teacher was sitting on a rock in the shade. She got to her feet when they got near.

"Howdy!" Casey said animatedly.

"Are you locals? Please tell me you're locals," the Professor said with a friendly grin, holding out her hand.

"Well - kind of!" April said, shaking her hand. "Casey used to come up here all the time as a kid, but now we just vacation here now. I'm April."

"Professor Mari Noown. And I hope you'll sit and talk to me, 'cause I've just been dying to talk to somebody familiar with the area."

April and Casey took off their backpacks and sat down, glad for a rest.

"So, whatcha doin out here?"

"We're from UMass. I'm a professor of biological science there, and these are some of my best and brightest who earned a little trip -- and some field work. They're future biologists, scientists, archaeologists, journalists here for a great opportunity to use their skills out in the real world," she said, beaming.

"Why journalists?" April asked.

"Practicing their investigative journalism," Professor Noown said. "'Cause we're not just out here on a nature hike - we're going to blow a major story wide open. You won't tell anyone this, but we're out here hoping to prove that some of my colleagues have been falsifying scientific data and squandering university grants for decades. Coming here is one thing, but trips to the remote south pacific, how much funding is that taking? Investigating unexplained deep sea noises, saying they're investigating global warming. Global warming is a hot button term, they know they can throw it around and get what they want. Coming back days late, and their scientific data is complete bunk, I'm sure of it. So we're going to find evidence to prove it, then we're going to the news media."

"Wow. I might have liked my journalism course better if I'd had a teacher like you," April said.

"What's these old woods got to do with all that?" Casey asked.

"This was one of their favorite places to come for their 'global warming' research. Have you ever seen them out here?"

"'Can't say I have. We don't get many folks out here, so we were real surprised to see you," Casey said, sipping from his canteen.

"You know these woods, right? What about a tower? Have you seen something like a tower out here? Ruins?"

"Hmm," Casey said. "The guys mighta seen somethin'. Er, my boy scout troop, that is. Ya know. Back in the day," Casey finished lamely. "I heard a lotta stories about these woods."

"Have you seen anything unusual out here?" Professor Noown prompted, eagerly.

"Oh yeah. My buddy swears he saw a werewolf eatin' a deer once. He came back later and found a claw he swore was this long." Casey held his hands up. "And there was this one time when I was eight and me an my cousin stayed up all night tellin ghost stories, and then something tapped on the window and scared us outta our minds," Casey laughed. "There was a story bout an old haunted house out here. My gramma said she went there as a girl, but she warned us kids not to go there. We never found it, though."

"I see you've heard a lot of the local legends," Professor Noown said with a slightly forced smile. "How bout you?" she asked April.

"Oh, gosh, y'know, I've never seen anything out of the ordinary up here. Sorry to disappoint you, but it's all been all normal all the time," April replied, breezily.

"Hmm. Maybe you can tell me if this creek has always been here?" she asked.

"I don't really remember," Casey said. "Maybe not. We usedta look for places to go wading on hot days, or to get a cool drink."

"I'd advise you not to drink any of that water," Professor Noown said, nodding at it. "It's salt water."

"Really," April said, looking at the students analyzing it.

"We're going to hike on up and look for the source later, might be a spring with some natural minerals. We think the ruins are near it too. We're going to get some night time readings tonight and hike on back tomorrow," she sighed uncharacteristically and looked out at the landscape. "I have to enjoy it, it's probably my last time in the field. Time think about retirement, soon. And these hikes are getting harder and harder for me. These kids fret about me more and more, but this old lady's still got some pep in her."

April smiled, genuinely liking the Professor. They chatted a little longer, about some of the places she had traveled, and little by little the students drifted over and sat down, finished with their in the field experiments.

"Well, we better make use of what sunlight is left," Professor Noown said brightly.

"Us too, we've got a bit of a hike to get home, but it was great meeting you," April said.

"Yeah, good luck with your investigative stuff," Casey said.

"You too. Have a safe trip back, and watch out for any mischievous forest imps," she said, smiling.

Once Casey and April were out of earshot, April said, "I hope I've lived as much as she has when I reach her age."

"I think we've done a lot of living. Lot of adventures. Hopefully plenty ahead still," Casey said.

"I guess we can safely rule them out as any kind of threat," April said. "They didn't seem to be interested in our turtles at all."

"Yep."

"And Casey! That was brilliant, you telling her all those campfire ghost stories. It totally distracted her from asking anything that would get too close to the truth."

"Thanks, but those were all real stories," Casey said sheepishly.

"Yeah, but, they're just the kinda stories kids repeat, not the kind of legends she was hoping for," April said.

"Hmph. I bet you were the girl at the slumber parties who turned on the lights during Bloody Mary too," Casey said.

"Maybe..." April replied. "Anyway, this is good news. They'll clear out of here tomorrow and the guys can go back outside without worrying about being seen, and we won't all be cooped up in there together. If the weather cooperates."


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days at the farmhouse were quiet and uneventful. One evening, April and Casey were talking in the living room.

"Casey, some of these pieces might be antiques. I could get them appraised for you sometime, if you're interested," April said, looking lingeringly over the knickknacks.

"Oh yeah?"

"But maybe they have sentimental value to your family," April said, picking up a jar and looking at the bottom, "I've always advised people to keep their antiques if they're family heirlooms, unless they're positive they want to sell them. Things like family heirlooms, well, you don't get them back and you can't just make new ones, at least not within your own generation." She put it back and straightened it carefully. "That was my dad's policy... he saw too many people who regretted not keeping them later." She looked at Casey to see if he was still paying attention, or if the topic was boring him.

"These were my gramma's, so I guess they had sentimental value to her, but she never really ended up with anybody to pass them on to. None of us grandkids was ever the type she'd've wanted to pass them on to," Casey said. "Anyway, anything really valuable has probably already been nicked by somebody else in my family. The only reason this old house has been sittin' here vacant all the time is it's not worth much."

Someone knocked on the door. April and Casey exchanged an alarmed glance.

"Is that one of the guys?" Casey asked.

"No. They don't knock. Anyway, they're upstairs."

April went to the door with Casey trailing behind her in close range to his weapons.

April opened the door to a slightly familiar face.

"Oh, thank goodness this is your house," Professor Noown said. She looked pale and exhausted. "I thought it must be, but if it wasn't, I didn't know who I could trust around here."

"Oh! Professor! Come in, please," April said.

Noown stepped inside and paused, looking dazed, and clearly like someone who had been roughing it for a few days. April took her elbow and led her to the couch.

"What happened?" Casey asked.

"We found the structure we were looking for, but there was something inside... something alive. My students went in and didn't come back out. The climb is too tough for me, I couldn't go in for them. I never should have brought them."

"They may be alright," April said. "Maybe they just got lost or something. I mean... did you see what happened to them?"

"I don't know... I don't know..."

"Well, don't worry, you're safe now and you can stay here tonight," April said. "Casey can you... go upstairs and get Professor Noown some tea?"

"Sure, but the kitchen's not up... oh. Gotcha," Casey said, and went upstairs to tell the Turtles that there was a guest in the house and not to come down.

"Maybe they'll turn up tonight. You found us, so they might too. If not, we'll call the police first thing in the morning," April said.

"No, I'd rather not get the police involved. It's a delicate situation, unusual. They're not trained for this kind of thing, they don't know what they're dealing with."

"What... what are we dealing with?" April asked.

"Things not of this earth," Professor Noown said, shaking her head. "It sounds crazy, they'd never believe me."

"Well, I believe you, for what it's worth," April said.

"I'll just get some rest and go back tomorrow. If I can't get them out, I'll at least join them. I owe it to them."

"I'm sure that's not necessary," April said, alarmed.

"Uh, April," Casey said, coming noisily down the creaky stairs. "Things ain't so good in the, uh, kitchen. You know, the upstairs kitchen."

"Oh. Hang on just a minute," April said, squeezing the Professor's arm.

"What is it?" she asked Casey quietly as they went up the stairs.

"That," Casey said, as they stepped into the upper room.

All four Turtles were gearing up, while Splinter nearby pulled weapons and an impressive amount of shuriken out of a trunk. As they'd spent the last several days lounging around the farmhouse, they looked very impressive and heroic.

"We heard everything," Leo said. "We're going."

"'Bout time we got outta here and got to do something," Raph said.

"We don't even know where these ruins are," April said. "Or what's in there."

"We know the approximate area, we'll figure it out," Leo said. "As for what's in there, well, it can't be that much weirder than the other stuff we've seen in those woods."

"Sweet, I wanna go too, let me get my --" Casey turned to run back downstairs and gasped.

There was Professor Noown near the top of the stairs, clutching the handrail and staring, mutely.

* * *

A short time later, Noown finally had the promised cup of tea in her hands. "I'm alright," she told them for about the fiftieth time. "I'm alright really. I wasn't that frightened, really, I think I reached a point where I couldn't process any more fear earlier this afternoon. I was just more surprised. And worried. And dreading the thought of having to run out of here and back into those woods, searching for another house to go to for help."

"We are sorry to have frightened you," Splinter said.

"I thought you were more of the creatures I saw -- earlier. I was afraid April and Casey had been in league with them all along and had lied to me."

"We're not monsters," Leo said calmly. "We just look a little unusual. We're going to find your teammates. If they're alive, we'll bring them back."

"Your accidental discovery of us may have been a blessing in disguise. Now you can provide us with more information before we go," Splinter said, holding his teacup. They were sitting around the kitchen table along with April and Casey. The other three Turtles were in the other room, voluntarily, trying not to overwhelm the woman any more.

"It's very dangerous," she replied gravely. "I should never have brought anyone out here, I realize that now. I don't want to endanger anyone else further. Please don't feel obligated to go."

"Well, we spend a lot of time here too. It's in our interest to know about whatever's out there," Leo said.

"Besides, we've dealt with lots of weird stuff before," Casey said.

* * *

The Turtles and Casey set out into the woods, leaving April and Splinter behind with a calmer Professor Noown. The woods seemed almost deceptively peaceful, even in the dark but they kept on their guard.

Morning dawned, and it looked like the weather was going to be nice. As they got near the general area where they knew the ruins were, they started looking for tracks or markings on the ground to indicate which way the group had gone. They stopped once and after losing at Rock-Paper-Scissors (and accusing them of ganging up on him and planning ahead how to cheat) Casey climbed a tree and looked around with binoculars, while the others leaned against a gnarled fallen tree and passed around a canteen of water.

He spotted something to the north and they came to it soon, snapping into a quieter, much more alert mode as they got near. Despite their frivolity earlier as they'd walked, they knew this was important, maybe even deadly, and as much as they wanted to believe Professor Noown was exaggerating and prone to over reacting, she didn't seem the type.

They drew near what appeared to be a stone tower roughly 30 feet tall at its tallest, although part of it had collapsed and caved in. Stones lay around the base, at first glance they looked like chunks that had fallen from the tower, but when one looked closer, some of the stones were obviously much larger and were embedded deep in the ground in a pattern, standing up like a poor man's stonehenge. It was in the middle of a small island in a shallow creek. There was no doubt the tower looked unsafe - it looked about ready to fall down - but it was so small it was impossible that several people had gone inside and been inaccessible, no matter what had happened.

"Careful," Leo said softly, "it looks unstable. Let's study the outside before we try to go in."

They circled around it.

"There's been a fire," Don said, looking at the blackened bark of a nearby tree. "It's amazing that it didn't spread."

"Is that a big window?" Mike asked, pointing up near the top of the tower on the side that was still intact. "It looks too big... it looks like a door."

"A door to nothing?" Leo asked, standing by Mike and looking in the same direction. "Could it have connected to another structure? Something made of wood that rotted away... or was dismantled and removed?"

"It's possible, but I don't see any signs of a foundation for it or any way it would have connected to the main building," Don said.

"We'll have to go up there and see," Raph said with a gleam in his eye. "There's a staircase inside leading right up to it."

They joined him standing around the ground level entrance. Inside, the structure was cool and dark - their eyes took a minute to adjust - even with the wall partly caved in, the inside was in shadow. The floor was covered with silt -- the tower must flood whenever the creek rose. It was slightly damp under their feet and free of footprints.

As small as the tower looked from the outside, it looked even smaller from inside. There was a steep staircase that curled around on the inside of the walls, meaning that the width of the staircase was taking up a lot of room in addition to the thickness of the walls.

"I'm gonna ask the obvious question here," Mike said. "How could a whole group of people even fit in here, let alone get lost in here?"

"Could this be the wrong ruins?" Leo asked. "I mean, she didn't give us a lot of details."

"It's possible..." Don said.

"Oh come on, let's go up there," Raph said impatiently and went inside.

"Raph, it's falling apart, it's not safe!" Leo said.

"So stay behind with your feet safely on the ground then and let me go," Raph said, "having a second person's weight on it will only make it twice as likely to collapse." And he started up the stairs quickly, obviously showing off.

"He's got a point," Don said pragmatically. "Maybe not exactly scientifically accurate, but still, he's kind of right."

Leo crossed his arms and waited.

Mike went back out and circled around to watch from the outside. Raph appeared inside the upper door and looked around.

"Well?" Mike called.

"Nothing," Raph replied, nudging a piece of rubble out the door with his toe. "No markings, nothing. And I don't see anything outside but trees."

"Well six people didn't walk into that tiny space and never come back," Leo said, tersely. "A New York City phone booth could hold more people. This is either the wrong place or Professor Noown is having a joke on us - or her colleagues did on her."

But Don had gone back inside and was inspecting the walls and stairs.

"You heard her, Leo," Don said over his shoulder. "She's a great actress or else she hallucinated the whole thing. Just give me a minute to think about this."

Leo sighed. "Ok, people could be in danger, so we have to assume that they are and continue like this is a rescue mission and therefore time is of the essence. Take some time to look Donnie, but just in case this isn't the right place and it's just a watchtower near the real ruins --"

"Or an outhouse," Mike said.

"--three of us should go and scout things out. Mike--"

"I'll stay here and watch Donnie's back," Mike said quickly.

"--you're coming with me and Casey." Leo finished. "Raph stay with Don. We'll meet back here in thirty minutes or less. Don't do anything dangerous."

Raph waited until they were out of earshot before sitting down in the doorway muttering, "Grouch."

"Yeah," Don said vaguely, not wanting to get Raph started ranting.

"What do you think?"

"I believe her story, but if this is the right place then we're missing something major."

"What're you doin' there?" Raph asked.

"Making sure we didn't miss a trap door or anything, although this doesn't look like it's been disturbed..." Don, kneeling near next to the stairs, leaned down to take a closer look at one of the stones of the wall. The dangling ends of his mask fluttered in a slight draft.

"Don!" Raph said, amazed, moving toward him.

"Hmm?"

"Look!" Raph said, pointing at it.

Don saw it and held his hand out trying to determine the source. "Raph, grab me a flashlight. I think there's a fissure here..."

Raph got a flashlight and switched it on. Don aimed it at the bottom of the stone wall, looking so closely that Raph couldn't see anything. "It could just be coming through a crack in the wall, I guess, but these stairs and the wall together have to be three feet thick. No wait... it's drawing air in." He pushed a large stone in the base of the wall experimentally. "This stone is loose, and look, there's a finger hold... help me move it."

It took both of them about 20 minutes to move several loose stones. Raph muttered about how much easier secret passages always looked in the movies. Once the first was out, the dark cavity hidden behind and under sucked in a lot of air and for the first time the ruins really started to feel creepy. Don studied the structure with the flashlight, observing how it had been constructed so that a portion of the area under the stairs was actually hollow, and the loose stones only appeared to be part of the wall, while really the stones around it bore the weight. Also, the five stones they removed were marked on the back. At first, Don thought it was so whoever replaced the stones could easily tell which went where and facing which direction, but then a pattern emerged. When they had all five out they laid them out on the floor, design up, and it was some kind of complicated pictograph. Don crouched down and examined it, while Raph shined his light into the tunnel.

"'S kinda tight," Raph said. "Looks like it opens up once you get inside."

"Well, we know none of us is claustrophobic," Don said.

"This place might make us claustrophobic," Raph muttered. It was kind of unnerving, the dark tunnel, all too easy to imagine something popping out of it at any second. He kept his light shining into it, while Don sketched the pictograph into a notebook.

Casey, Leo and Mike returned and reported more charred spots in the woods and a few scattered rocks similar to the ones used in the tower. Mike showed them an odd green rock he'd found near one of them with a fossilized shell in it.

Then they faced the dark opening in the wall with a dread at having to go in there, but they knew they couldn't delay it. As Leo had pointed out, this was a rescue mission and getting there quickly would increase the chances of the missing people's survival. Leo and Don got down on the floor with flashlights and examined the tunnel.

There was a hollow place inside the wall just big enough to crawl into and an open place in the ground below it.

"It looks like a short drop down into a room below. Look, Leo." Don shined his light at something. "Backpacks and some other stuff. Someone has been here." Don wiggled forward. "It looks like there's a tunnel going southeast. What on earth would this room have been constructed for?" He moved back and sat up, facing his brothers. "It must connect to something else, otherwise we wouldn't be getting these strong air currents through here. And I can't see any other purpose for it, other than to provide a safe underground passage to somewhere else."

"Alright, guys," Leo said. "Leave any nonessential gear behind, this is going to be a tight squeeze. Casey, I think you should take the point position."

"Sure," Casey said hesitatingly, eyeing the dark opening with apprehension. "But I kinda thought underground tunnels were your territory."

Leo sighed. "If we find any survivors in there they're probably already terrified, judging by Professor Noown's reaction to us last night. They should see you first, so they don't panic and bolt. And don't put on your mask."

"Right," Casey said.

Raph jabbed an elbow into Casey's side. "Scared?"

"'Course not."

"And we haven't exactly been trying to be quiet, but let's not announce ourselves either. We have to assume there is some kind of enemy in there holding the people against their will. So keep the noise down - and let's go easy on any walls and support structures, ok? We don't know how sturdy it is."

They left their packs behind, taking only flashlights, weapons and a few emergency supplies. Casey selected some choice smaller weapons.

"Finally, let's do this," Raph said, diving headfirst into the tunnel before anyone else was ready.

"Raph!" Leo called.

"And the Turtle voted most likely to die young is..." Mike said.

"Not now, Mike," Don said sharply, and crawled after Raph.

Inside, they all stood around and shined their flashlights around. There was a layer of silt all over the stone floor that had been disturbed. A cold wind blew past them. The walls were the same gray stone as the tower above, and were otherwise featureless.

A quick check of the abandoned backpacks showed that they belonged to the students, but didn't provide any other clues.

When they examined the tunnel Don had seen, they saw that it was made of a greenish stone and the blocks were chiseled differently. It lead down and curved off first to the right, then to the left. It was very narrow; the Turtles had to turn sideways to get through. It curved so sharply in some places you couldn't see the person a few steps ahead of you.

They entered another chamber. Casey couldn't stand up straight in this one. It was very tense. Casey was out in front shining his flashlight around with one hand and holding his baseball bat with the other. Leo was shining his light at the floor silently pointing out to his brothers that the marks in the dust were different and more widespread in here. A small sound from a dark corner up ahead drew everyone's attention. They barely had their flashlights and weapons at the ready before a ghoulish thing flew out at Casey, wailing.

Casey yelped and his flashlight went spinning to the floor. He gripped the bat at both ends and brought it up in front of his chest in a blocking motion, and the thing collided with it, and kept frantically grabbing at Casey. The Turtles, only though sheer force of years of training kept silent at the initial shock. Leo, who was closest, kicked the thing away from Casey to give them some room to fight, and their flashlight beams swung all over the place as they tried to get a fix on it.

"Wait, wait," Mike cried, "stop!"

The thing was on the dirt floor, and as they got their flashlights steadily on it, it turned its face toward them. It was a ragged and dirty young man, squinting into the flashlight beams and looking dazed.

"Oh no," Casey said, and reached down to pull him up by the elbow. "Sorry, man, didn't know what you were. Look, it's me Casey, we met a couple days ago in the woods, am I right?" The man gaped at him, holding his stomach and panting.

"See?" Raph said, retrieving Casey's flashlight and aiming it at Casey's chest, so it illuminated his face without blinding him. "Remember this guy? Who could forget this ugly mug. Hello?"

Don prudently scanned his light around the dark corners of the room, checking for any other survivors, then kept it trained on another narrow tunnel at the end to watch for ambushes.

"Dude, Leo, how hard did you kick him?" Mike said, stepping forward to get a closer look at the man.

"Not that hard!" Leo exclaimed. "I didn't want to accidentally hurt Casey, they were so close together."

"I think he's just confused from the whole ordeal," Don said, glancing over his shoulder at them, but keeping an eye on the tunnel ahead.

"Are you from Professor Noown's party?" Leo asked. "She was worried about you, she sent us to find you." He nodded, a little. "Are there more of you around."

The man licked his lips, and said hoarsely, "I don't know."

"Hey man we're gonna get you out of here. These are my friends - don't worry, they're not gonna hurt you, they're good guys," Casey said to the distracted man.

"Good idea," Leo said. "Let's, take him back up. He'll only be a liability if we take him in any further."

"What about the rest of them?" Casey asked.

"We've got one survivor and we have a responsibility to get him out safely. Somebody stay with him up in the tower, and the rest of us will come back down," Leo said.

Casey and Mike each took the man's arms, and Raph went ahead of them to light their way. Leo, prepared to take the rear position, turned inquisitively to look at Don.

"Leo, this is going to be a problem," Don said, studying the next tunnel.

"What is it?"

"I don't think we'll fit through here."

Leo leaned forward and eyed the opening. It was very narrow. The dust on the floor was disturbed in there too. "You're right," Leo sighed. "Casey can probably squeeze in, but I don't think we can. Give it a try."

Don turned sideways and sidestepped into the tunnel. With his plastron flat against one side, his carapace scraped the other audibly. The tunnel narrowed slightly after that. "That's it," Don said. "It gets narrower after just a few steps."

They followed the others back out. Getting the stumbling man through the twisting tunnel was a slow process.

"Hey, friend, what's your name?" Mike asked him as they made slow progress through the claustrophobic tunnel. But the man only shook his head vaguely. "You in shock or something?"

When they got back to the first chamber, Raph, in the lead, stopped short. There was some noise and a bright light coming from the hole they'd climbed down.

"Sensei," Raphael said.

"Huh?" Mike asked.

"They're here!" Splinter exclaimed from above, and there was a murmur of voices.

They all came into the chamber and saw Splinter's head and shoulders coming through the opening, a lantern dangling from one hand.

"Master, why are you here?" Leo asked.

"We became quite concerned when you didn't return! I am pleased to see you are all well. But the young man doesn't look well -- quickly Raphael, climb up here and help him up."

Confused, the Turtles obeyed, concentrating on getting themselves and their guest above ground. When the man climbed up, Professor Noown helped him sit down, leaning against a wall of the tower. Don climbed up next. "April," he said, surprised.

"We were so worried about you guys!" she exclaimed.

"But it's only been--" Don said in confusion.

"It's dark out," Raph interrupted loudly, staring out the door.

"It can't be more than late morning, noon at the latest," Leo said.

"I'm tellin' you, it's nighttime. This is crazy."

"Listen," Don said, and they all heard the sound of crickets.

"You've been gone for almost three days," April said, one arm still around Casey's back.

Leo looked at Splinter for verification. "That's not possible. We left home last night."

"And yet, several days passed for us," Splinter said.

"But we can't have been gone that long," Don said. He picked up his canteen. "We'd be badly dehydrated, but look, we haven't drunk that much water. And we had our flashlights on the whole time we were underground, but the batteries are fine."

"We do not understand this, but for now we must focus on more urgent topics," Splinter said. "Were there more survivors underground? Or bodies to be recovered?"

"No bodies," Leo said quickly, "and we're not sure if there are others. We were going to make another trip back inside."

"Mitch, what happened?" Professor Noown said. "Can you tell us?" She had handed him a bottle of water from her backpack and he was drinking, but he wasn't responding to her.

"We think he's in some kinda shock," Casey said. "He's been like that the whole time."

Splinter looked at his students gravely. "We must check for the others, and we must be careful how we do it - this place seems to distort time."

"Assuming that time was moving normally during our walk here, which it seemed to be since we saw the sun rise and climb at what seemed to be a normal rate, then the distortion only occurred inside the underground ruins," Don said. "What was a short trip for us was several days aboveground. That means, if we split into two teams and one team goes back inside, the outside team will have to wait a few days." He looked at Noown and the young man.

"This man may require medical attention," Splinter said. "April and Casey, please return to the farmhouse with our guests. My sons and I will recover the rest of the party."

"Wait, Master," Leo said, "There's another problem. There was only one tunnel that led deeper into the ruins and there's no way we'll be able to fit inside it. We're not exactly built to squeeze into small places, but Casey probably could."

"I see," Splinter said. "In that case, Casey, please accompany us back inside. Leonardo and Donatello please come with us as far as you can -- Donatello, see if you can figure out a way to decrease the effects of the time distortion. April--"

"I want to go with you," April said quickly.

"It's dangerous, we don't know what we'll find," Don said.

"I know that, Professor Noown has been telling me about it, but let's face it -- if only Casey and Splinter can get inside, that's an awfully small group to face this situation. I can go with them. I'm the only other person who can both fit and who is in any condition to go."

"Very well," Splinter said. "Michaelangelo and Raphael escort our guests back to the farmhouse." Mikey and Raph glanced at each other. Unlike April, they wouldn't be able to talk their way out of the boring assignment.

They regrouped and the farmhouse group left - the Professor was adamant about not staying inside the tower any longer than they had to, even if it meant walking through the woods at night. The tower was too unsound to risk sheltering there for the night anyway. The other party split up their gear, including the extra food that had been brought and the extra lanterns. Leo quickly briefed Splinter and April on what to expect.

They went back into the underground tunnel, Splinter in the lead this time. The sound of the crickets and nature faded quickly behind them. They reached the chamber where they had found Mitch, and paused. Splinter peered into it, whiskers twitching as he sniffed the air.

"I don't like this," Leo said, "waiting here while you go in."

"We don't have much of a choice."

"She was adamant about not bringing in any officials," April said. "At first I thought they must have been doing something illegal, but from what she said it would expose the fact that they're trying to disprove some falsified scientific evidence, and there's some kind of secret organization behind it. It was complicated."

"We will return quickly," Splinter said. "April, Casey, are you ready?"

Splinter went in first, slipping in easily.

"Be careful," Don said, watching April with a worried look. She gave him a small smile although she looked terrified, and followed Splinter, walking sideways with her back flat against one wall. Casey followed in the same way, but with a tighter squeeze, sucking in his gut in a way that would be comical in a less tense situation. Leo and Don stood in silence watching them until the light from their lanterns was out of sight. Then they sat down to wait with just one flashlight on, to conserve their batteries.


	3. Chapter 3

Mike was sitting on the roof a few nights later, drinking a cup of hot chocolate. The house seemed way too empty and quiet, and yet Mari had an annoying way of finding him and talking way too much. She was wired, on edge, paranoid, definitely no longer the calm person Mike had observed in the woods. That was why he was on the roof - he seriously doubted she could find him there, but Raph could, and Mike wanted to talk to him without Mari overhearing, but didn't want to directly ask Raph to talk.

He half resented the decision Splinter had made to send him and Raph back, and half thought that he deserved it. Mostly he was just worried sick and wanted to know what was going to happen, good or bad, he thought it'd be better than this gut-wrenching wait. But what if only Leo and Don ever came back? Or none of them? What would they do? How long could they live in this house without Casey? Were there payments to be made - would someone come and repossess the house?

A light flicked on in a window below him, and a minute later Raph peeked up over the edge of the roof. "There you are," Raph said, and pulled himself up. He sat next to Mike, who wordlessly offered Raph his mug. Raph took a swallow and handed it back.

"She was driving me nuts," Mike said, as explanation for why he was where he was.

"I think that's the problem with her. She IS nuts."

"Didn't seem like she was before," Mike said, brushing a bug off of his arm.

"Maybe, maybe not. Something about that place, bad for the sanity." Raph shrugged. "God I wish they'd come back."

"Yeah, me too. D'ya think Splinter sent us back here 'cause he knew about what we did?" Mike asked, glad that the darkness meant he didn't have to look Raph in the eye as he asked it.

"What, you mean scaring them in the woods?"

"Yeah."

"No. How could he know?" Raph asked.

"I mean she coulda told him what they saw, and he worked out that it was us. So he like sent us back to take care of her to make up for what we did. Ya think?"

"I think you're thinking too hard, Mikey," Raph said, taking the mug back.

"But it's weird that —"

"'S no way he coulda figured it out, so drop it," Raph said, draining the mug and setting it down next to him. He stood up and Mike thought he was going to leave, but instead Raph started to stretch. "Somebody's gotta do those dishes, they're gonna freak if they come back and see them all."

"Yeah." Mike thought there were much more important things that washing dishes to worry about.

Raph balanced on one foot on the very apex of the roof like a balance beam. "How 'bout we spar, and whoever loses his balance has to wash 'em? Unless he slides off the roof and cracks his head open."

"Nah, it's ok, I'll do the dishes when I go back in."

"Spoilsport."

"I want to wash them," Mike insisted.

From his vantage point, Raph stared out into the dark nighttime woods for a moment, still balanced on one foot. "Makes you wonder what's out there. Something weirder than us."

"If they really saw something."

"What d'ya mean?"

"I mean, maybe there wasn't anything else, maybe they just saw us."

Raph put his foot down. "Yer crazy."

"No, seriously. Maybe they ran in a panic and went into that tower to hide and got all confused."

"No way —" Raph said, talking over Mike, who continued.

"Maybe they took chances they wouldn't have otherwise because they thought something was out there, following them."

"You saw that crazy place, Mikey, the way we lost time in there. Something was there, something built those ruins. It wasn't us."

"But we didn't see anything —"

Raph spoke very quietly and in a controlled voice, which was somehow more intimidating than when he yelled. "Listen to me, doofus, we didn't cause any of this. These people could tell the difference between a stupid practical joke and monsters forcing them to go into a freaking time-warping ancient underground tunnel. So stop thinking about it, and stop talking about it." Raph walked away, and sat on the edge of the roof at the other side of the farmhouse, his back to Mike. Mike got up after a minute and crawled back in the window to do the dishes.

* * *

The group from the tower arrived back suddenly one day. Mike spotted them and was out the back door and onto the porch before they had even halfway crossed the open field by the farmhouse.

"You guys ok?" Mike asked.

"Yeah. We're not injured, at least," Leo replied.

Raph peeked around the door and watched them climb the steps, obviously registering the fact that they had brought no more survivors with them, only gear. Splinter nodded to his students and curtly asked where Professor Noown was. He went upstairs after they told him, without another word.

"He's off to break some bad news to her, am I right?" Raph asked.

"No survivors... bodies irretrievable," April said.

"Oh jeez," Mike said.

Casey collapsed into a chair with a loud groan. "I never ever ever wanna do that again.

"What's been happening here?" Leo asked, dropping his gear and sitting down as well.

"Took the kid to the hospital and they kept him so they could evaluate his mental condition. Whatever happened to him really screwed up his brain. He talked about it a little on the walk back, but it didn't all make a lot of sense. From what I could understand, he spent a lot of his time in there in the dark trying to force open those rocks that were blocking the entrance, but from the angle he was at he couldn't get any leverage. Heck, it took me and Donnie a while to move them, and that was with two of us. When he heard us coming he panicked and ran and tried to hide, until he saw Casey. Anyway she's been hanging out here waiting for you to get back, complaining that we don't have a phone and all that." Raph said. "She didn't tell anyone that the others were missing."

 

* * *

Noown had left quickly after getting the news from Splinter. She'd thanked them in a very distracted way for their assistance. April asked her what she would tell the authorities, but Noown had only said she'd invent something, and the extent of their involvement would only be that, after meeting April and Casey hiking in the woods, she'd gone to their house for help, had downplayed the nature of the emergency, and April and Casey had graciously given her a place to stay for a few days.

Leo meant to appeal to her how very serious it was that she not discuss their existence with anyone in even a hypothetical way — it was a speech he'd given to a few people they'd had contact with — but she'd seemed so distraught and eager to leave that he didn't have the heart for it.

What followed was a very quiet gloomy day and a half as they prepared to head back home. The hush and depression that lay over the house reminded several of them of the first time they'd all come there together, with Leo balanced between life and death, and then afterwards as they'd all struggled to come to terms with all that had happened. Splinter called for a meditation session outside in the last hour of fading sunlight one warm evening, and had begun by telling his students to never return to the area near the tower or go looking for it again. They had then all been too distracted to meditate well, but he let them go early without a word of reproach. When they went back inside, April was washing dishes in the kitchen. The Turtles went upstairs and Splinter sat down.

Splinter sighed. "We came here to clear our minds and improve our focus, but our vacation has done more harm than good, and has cost us the things we came here to find. Ironically it will be returning home that will help us now, and we must do the work as a necessity instead of a luxury."

"They'll be alright," April said. "They've been through worse before."

"There is something different about this," Splinter said. "I only hope the city will be peaceful as we regain the ground we have lost."

The Turtles discussed everything in whispers that night after the lights were out. They didn't know what had happened, or why, they didn't know if they could have acted sooner or differently, what if they had sent Casey ahead the first time instead of returning to the surface with Mitch? What if they hadn't spent so much time outside before finding the passage? They wanted to go back and get more answers but it seemed impossible, and Splinter's strict warning about never going back seemed to completely block the possibility of pleading their case to Splinter.

The next day they pressed April for more details about everything that had happened. She hesitated for a moment, then said, "Ok — after you left the house to look for the tower, Professor Noown was a mess. She went downhill fast, like whatever she'd been through was catching up to her. I don't think she slept that night, or at all that day. She couldn't answer questions — it was like she wasn't tracking at all. She finally crashed the next day and slept all that night, and when she got up that morning she was more coherent and was able to tell us more about what had happened, but her story was so odd. We realized just how dangerous the situation was. You guys hadn't come back yet and we were really starting to worry. I was sure something had happened to you. Especially when she hinted at there being something supernatural — even evil — in the woods. So we decided to look for you.

"But I know what you really want to hear about is what happened in the tower after we left you guys. We went into the tunnel and walked for a while — it went down a lot and curved. Then it opened up into a cavern, and Splinter stopped us because there was a sharp drop ahead. There was no way to tell how big it was because our lights were too weak to reach the walls. But you could tell from the feel of the place that it was massive. We didn't know what to do — there didn't seem to be a path, the ground was mostly level and then it just dropped away. It was more of that greenish rock, like the room we were in. Anyway, Splinter was sniffing the air. Even with all the air rushing through there, I think he knew early on what we were going to find. He had us shine our lights down over the edge and we could see a large ledge or a floor below with something on it, but our lights were too weak. So Splinter attached his lantern to some twine and lowered it down, and Casey used his binoculars to get a closer look. And that's where they were."

There was silence, as everyone digested this. "What killed them? Did they fall?" Leo asked.

"I... didn't look very closely, but from what I saw... well, if they had fallen, I'd imagine they would have all fallen together and would have landed in more of a heap. This looked more like they laid down, to sleep or to rest. But they were definitely dead. And then Splinter dropped the lantern and told us to walk very quickly back to the tunnel, but not to run."

Leo frowned. "He dropped it? On purpose?"

"I've very rarely seen him drop things accidentally," Don said.

"Maybe something made him drop it," Mike suggested. "Pulled it out of his hands."

"Or he might have felt that we were in danger there, and it was too risky to take the time to reel it back up," April said.

Mike shuddered. "Creepy."

"I don't know which theory is creepier," Raph said.

"The whole place just felt so weird... and honestly, it took everything I had to make myself go into that tunnel," April said. "All my instincts were telling me not to."

 

* * *

The drive back to New York was much quieter than normal. Truly, it had been an awful vacation, and they'd all been cheated out of several days by the warped time in the ruins. Leo, Don and Casey had lost almost a week. It had all ended so badly, but more than that, something about the whole ordeal was unsettling.

 

They returned home and tried to get back to normal. Splinter struggled to regain his students discipline and focus, and they all tried to put their failed vacation behind them.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 2.

 

Karai walked into a coffee shop and sat down at the arranged table. The man across from her was very average, dressed casually, and was drinking black coffee.

"And the two met at last," he said. "I see I got your attention finally."

"You've gotten the attention of quite a few people recently with your — shall we call them 'business tactics?'" Karai asked.

"That would be best," he said. There were a lot of people close enough to overhear their conversation.

"Very well. I've been hearing a lot about you from some of my associates. And several local publications are very interested in your 'business tactics'. It seems to be all they can write about," Karai said.

He smiled. "I've worked hard to get my organization — and myself — to where we are today. My name is Ian Woon, and I'm the leader of the Esoteric Cult of Cthulhu."

He watched her very closely, not quite blinking enough, following every move. To an onlooker it might have looked like they were on a date, and that he was smitten with this attractive, smartly dressed woman who was so obviously out of his league. To Karai the way he looked at her was unnerving, but she had come prepared for any way in which he might try to manipulate her.

"You, of course, need no introduction," Ian said, sipping his coffee. "We've been trying to track you down for weeks, but you're a hard lady to find. As your reputation would have me believe."

"And I have been aware of you, even before the police were. You have been sloppy to draw such attention to yourself. I merely had no reason to pay you any attention. Honestly, I believed the officials would have shut you down by now. Then there's the fact that several of my —" Karai eyed the approaching waitress, "loyal employees have recently joined your organization. Nothing, thank you," she added to the waitress.

"She'll have a large chai tea," Ian said, smugly. The waitress wrote it down, shrugging off the weirdness. "I'd guess that's the kind of thing you'd like?"

Karai completely ignored him. "I don't know how you convinced my people to join you. But that doesn't matter now, they are dishonored, they are dead to myself and my organization."

"But you agreed to meet with me for some reason. You must want to know something."

"Yes, I want to know what your objectives are and why you are conducting your business in such a reckless manner. You appeared on these streets nearly overnight. Our organizations may be able to coexist, but we must know your goals."

"Oroku Karai, the woman who rebuilt the Foot from the ground up. Always right to the point. We're here because we think that something we're looking for is here. We heard rumors, so we came to investigate, and when we asked the right people here we heard the same story over and over," he closed his eyes, and smiled, like he was picturing something wonderful. "This is the best lead we've found, and even more exciting is that I get to talk to you, and you're right at the center of the whole thing."

"What do you speak of?"

He didn't answer her question. "Those are your men out there," Ian said, tipping his head toward the window. "You know what they say about cockroaches — for each one you see, there's a thousand you don't." Across the street, a man was trying to fix the chain on his bicycle. Another man was leaning against a building twenty feet away, talking nonstop on a cell phone, and was holding both a lit cigarette and a paper cup of coffee in his free hand. Karai ignored the question completely and kept her intense gaze fixed on Ian's face.

He sipped his coffee and leaned forward. "Haven't you ever heard what they say about you?"

"I pay no mind to what others say about me," Karai said calmly, "I want to know what your organization's goals are. All future dealings between our organizations ride on your reply."

"They say you command demons." He watched her face very closely. "Some say they became the Foot clan's slaves after being bested in battle and they owe you thousands of years of service. Some say you've played a long game of chess, move and countermove, pretending they're your enemy or your ally as it suits you. Some say they are completely independent, but you pretend to control them, or that they've just taken a liking to you. But almost every Purple Dragon on the streets has a story about them, claiming to have seen them with their own eyes. And your former followers have some wild tales..."

"And?"

"And," he sat back, "we know what they really are. Some of them escaped out into the world a very long time ago. We just need to find them, so we can do our master's will. That's what they're here for, to help us serve him. Only with all the stories, we've not yet to be able to find them, but all of the stories lead back to you. We can feel the sacrifices working, drawing them closer, but we haven't found them yet. Help us find them, that's all we want, then we'll get all the power we've been promised and we'll leave you alone to run your gang."

"This conversation is closed," Karai said quietly, and stood up.

"Green demons, vaguely man-shaped, they come out onto the streets at night, they're drawn to chaos and violence," he said. She gave him a cold look and turned and walked out, heels clicking. "You know what I'm talking about!" he called after her. The guy on the cell phone across the street stopped pacing and started casually walking up the street, still talking away and gesturing largely with the hand that had the coffee and cigarette in it. Fifteen seconds later, the guy with the bike got the chain back on and rode off. Both went the same direction Karai had been walking. Ian sat back.

 

* * *

 

Leo woke up to noise in the main room of their lair. It was so late it was early, and Raph had still been out with Casey when Leo had finally marked his place in his book and turned out the light. He stepped out of his room and looked down into the main room to see Raph sitting there with a handful of bloody gauze pressed against his upper arm and an open first aid kit in front of him. Raph turned and met his eyes with a silent appeal for help and a challenge to not berate him.

Leo climbed down and approached Raph. "Think it needs stitches," Raph muttered, "can't see it that well."

Leo suppressed his need to show disapproval, and pulled a lamp closer for more light. He could see why Raph was sitting on the floor and not the couch — he'd have left telltale bloodstains on it if he had. "Ok, but you have to clean up the floor when I'm done," Leo said.

"Deal," Raph said, as Leo pulled the gauze away to look at the gash on the back of Raph's upper arm. He began disinfecting it and felt that Raph was vibrating slightly with the lingering high from his fights that evening.

"I had a great night," Raph said, goading Leo slightly.

"Doesn't look like it from where I'm sitting," Leo replied.

"Everybody out there got all agitated while we were gone. You should feel the energy out there."

Leo glanced up at Raph's face, questioningly.

"I dunno what it is. Maybe the Foot regaining control now that they have a leader again. Karai layin' the smack down on everybody else. Everybody's just antsy. Doin' crazy stuff, getting aggressive and confrontational. Guys that woulda normally run for the hills at the sight of me an' Case were divin' right in for some abuse."

"And that's how this happened?"

Raph shrugged his good shoulder. "What can I say? They were all offense and no defense tonight. This coulda happened to anyone, and it was worth it." Raph glanced at Leo. Was he gonna start lecturing or what?

"You didn't see any Foot, did you?" Leo asked.

"Nah, no sign of them or your girlfriend. Ow." Raph winced. "Ok, don't provoke the guy who's putting a needle in your arm."

"Smooth move, Raph," Mikey said, wandering into the room yawning.

"Doesn't anybody sleep around here?" Raph asked, rolling his eyes. But really he was embarrassed. "Go back to bed, Mikey, mind your own business."

"I am minding my own business," Mikey said. "This is my living room as much as it is yours."

"We're almost done here, Mikey. Sorry to wake you up," Leo said.

"Aw, you didn't. I had weird dreams and I couldn't get back to sleep. I was actually gonna go get some food, but this is more interesting." Mike sat down.

Raph snorted.

"Raph, you didn't really answer my question. Who were these guys? If not Foot, were they Purple Dragons?"

"I dunno, they didn't look like Purple Dragons. Just random thugs, I guess," Raph said.

"Pretty good for random thugs," Mikey said, eyeing Raph's wound.

Raph gave him a dirty look but kept quiet.

"There," Leo said, cutting the thread, and putting a bandage over it. "All patched up. How you explain it to Master Splinter is your own business. The mess is yours to clean up. I'm going to bed now, and I think you should too, Mikey."

"Yeah yeah, lemme get a snack at least," Mikey said, going into the kitchen.

"Thanks bro," Raph said quietly, starting to put things away.

"Don't mention it. G'night," Leo said, and went back to bed.

 

* * *

 

"Tell me what it is we're doing again?"

"We're gonna rip off this CD store," the other Purple Dragon, a guy called Vin, told Chance.

"But they're closed. They wont have any money, it'll have been deposited at the bank. Or in the safe. Can you open the safe?" Chance asked.

Vin shrugged. "Don't worry so much, kid. Hun just said to get out here and do this, and we could keep whatever we want. and don't worry about cops or anything, that's what they're here for." He nodded his head toward several ninja in black.

The Foot Ninja really intimidated Chance. They never spoke, not even if you said something directly to them, not even if it was important. He wondered if they didn't even speak English at all. They were out a lot recently. Other Dragons had talked about being sent out on missions with them, or seeing glimpses of them around the city late at night.

"From what I heard, us and the Foot used to be thick. That was when the Foot had their old leader, Saki, and him and Hun were tight. The two used to work together with respect for each other, you know?" Vin said. "But Saki got himself offed in the line of duty over some old grudge.

"So that Karai chick came and took over. She seems alright to me — I got friends in the Foot, ya know? They say she's alright, but the organization ain't what it used to be, ya know, those were the glory days. Hun has no allegiance to Karai, thinks of her as a usurper, even though she was like Saki's adopted daughter, so she's family with the man Hun respected and all. So us two organizations mind our own business mostly, and occasionally help each other out. Both sides are on strict rules to not mess with each other. And in cases like this, we work together. Special orders from Hun," Vin said proudly.

"Yeah, I guess. This is a weird thing to do though. I mean, don't we usually hit bigger targets. Going on a crime spree all over town seems more like —"

"'Crime spree'? Nah, it's called following orders." Vin patted Chance's shoulder. "I know you're new, kid, so I'll give you some advice I wish I'd had. The big picture isn't always visible for us, but Hun's got it all, up here." Vin pointed at his temple. "Follow his orders and we'll get rewarded. Still, 's kinda good to have them along, though with those psycho killers out there. They'd have to be suicidal to attack us with ninja escorts." There had been some strange murders going on around the city, and a few Dragons had been killed. The bodies turned up in large groups with some kind of occult symbols on them. It was all over the news, especially since several rich, high-profile business people who were not involved in any sort of dangerous activities had turned up dead.

So they hit several stores that night, and Chance knew of some other Dragons doing the same, with the Foot along and sticking to the shadows. Vin wasn't exactly subtle, and Chance wondered at Hun for picking him for the assignment. They seemed to stay one step ahead of the police though, and committed a lot of minor crimes without incident.

Chance dragged himself into bed around 4am, wishing he didn't have to get up and get to the hardware store in five hours. Maybe the job had been a bad idea. But he liked to look as convincing as possible at all times. A punk kid on his own in this city, Dragon or not, would need some legitimate income coming in. It was just easier all around, looked more normal. When he was undercover, he liked to live the role completely.

 

* * *

 

"Welcome back to New York. Look at that. Can't even see a single star here," Raph said, staring up at the night sky.

"I didn't think you cared about that stuff," Don said.

"I don't. And don't let anyone tell ya different."

Don was checking his favorite dumpster for usable discarded electronics, and Raph was standing watch on top of the closed dumpster next to it. They were in a mostly residential area, in an alley behind tall apartment buildings, but the secondhand electronics shop usually had exclusive use of this dumpster, meaning it usually wasn't too smelly, and they threw out a lot of salvageable stuff.

"Why are you even here? Not that I'm not grateful for the company," Don said, digging around in the trash. "Usually you guys all get way too busy to come with me when I go on dumpster runs."

"I'd be out with Casey but he decided to turn in early. He has a job interview or something tomorrow."

Don threw back his head and laughed. You could never tell what he was going to find funny, sometimes the most normal things made Don carry on laughing, and the stuff Raph found the funniest got no reaction.

"Would you keep it down! Jeez," Raph muttered, glancing around.

"Sorry, I just pictured Casey wearing a suit and tie," Don chuckled.

"I've seen Casey with a tie before... but he was using it to strangle somebody," Raph said.

"Alright, so Casey's out of the picture tonight, but you coulda found something else to do, right?" Don examined something that looked like a mess of wires and gave an excited little "ah!" before putting it in his bag.

"I just wanted to hang out with somebody who wasn't Leo or Mikey."

"Ah, the old not-Leo-or-Mikey trick. Works every time."

Raph stretched and looked up at the lit windows. People moving around in their kitchen, making dinner, completely unconcerned about what was going on outside or who might be watching them. It reminded Raph of the first trips Splinter had taken with them to the 'city above.' It hadn't really hit home until then that most people really lived a lot better than they did and had life a lot better, until he'd seen it.

"Can't you hurry up?" Raph asked, irritated.

"Can. But won't. This is important stuff. Go on home if you're bored, I'll be fine here."

Raph knew Don was right — the things he made had improved their lives more than any of them had ever really thought about.

A few minutes passed in silence, then Raph stood up suddenly and jumped down from the dumpster. "That guy just looked right at me!" he said, and started running before Don could even look up.

"Raph, wait! Raph!" Don grabbed his bag and followed Raph, and the figure he could see ahead, darting around corners. But they got to a certain point and lost him.

"Where did he go?" Raph muttered agitatedly. "Take the streets, I'll hit the roofs."

"Wait, Raph," Don grabbed his arm. "Is it that important?"

"He saw me, Donnie, he was looking straight at me! Staring!"

"Yeah, well we have that effect on people!" Don said sharply, and pulled Raph back into a shadowy doorway. "I'd prefer if it didn't happen any more tonight!" He nodded his head toward the busier street ahead. "What's so important about this guy."

"Nothing. Fine, 'Leo', you're right, I'm wrong, let's go home," Raph muttered, and turned to walk back the way they'd come.

"Seriously Raph you can't just start wailing on somebody for something like that. What're you gonna do if you catch up to him anyway, besides give him a better look at you? You wouldn't kill him."

"No, I wouldn't," Raph said darkly, looking away. "You know I wouldn't."

 

* * *

 

April invited them for dinner. That wasn't unusual in itself, but she seemed to have a secret reason. Splinter chose to stay home, which also wasn't abnormal. When they arrived, dinner was already cooking and it smelled great. Don offered immediately to help out, but she said he didn't need to, dinner was basically ready, just simmering, and they'd eat when Casey got there, and they had a seat.

"Guys, I have something to show you," April said, standing up, her voice surprisingly subdued and slightly nervous. "Because... you should know that some good came of it all anyway... and your actions helped, even if when we left it all felt so bad..."

She handed Leo a newspaper folded open to a certain article. Leo read the headline aloud, 'UMass Professors Resign, Flee Under Allegations of Fraud'.

"It turns out Professor Noown went ahead and came forward with her evidence — or some of it, anyway. The whole group of professors took off almost immediately before the investigation could really begin. They're all wanted for questioning for the disappearance of the students," April said.

Don was leaning over Leo's arm, skimming the article. "But Professor Noown is resigning too. It looks like she might be in some legal trouble." Don frowned.

"Well, it's not too surprising. She did organize an expedition from which five people never returned and one had a severe mental breakdown. And even though they were all adults, she was still their professor and they were young, so there's been a lot of criticism against her." April perched on the armrest of the couch. "She lied about the nature of the trip to her superiors beforehand and took the investigation into her own hands instead of alerting authorities."

"She wanted to make it a big surprise," Raph said. "She wanted to be in the spotlight."

"Right. Some people are praising her, though," April added.

"She stood up for what was right, and she believed in her students' abilities to help uncover the truth," Leo said. "And she sacrificed her own reputation to do it."

"No, she got revenge and she sacrificed other people for it," Raph said. "They never should been out there, they were in way over their heads."

"Either way, people who were abusing the system aren't able to do so anymore," Don said, still skimming the article. "Oh no, they don't know what happened to the missing students yet. They're presumed dead, but there are quotes from the relatives about holding on to hope. I can't read this." He got up and paced.

"So she's lying — or at least, not telling them — about that," Raph said, arms crossed. "She's letting those other guys take the blame for it. They mighta been misusing funds and faking their data and whatever, but murder? They weren't out there — they had nothing to do with it. She did."

"She can't come forward with the truth, Raph. They can't go into that tower to recover the bodies. I mean, they shouldn't. That place is dangerous, we all felt it. They'd have people swarming all over the place if they discover the way it distorts time," Leo said, heatedly. "Think what a mess it would all be. Anyway, she's as much protecting us and April and Casey as herself. Have they questioned you, April?"

"No, I haven't heard a thing."

"See, it's a bad situation Raph, and it could only be made worse by dragging the authorities further into it. Not to mention us," Leo said.

"Guys, I didn't mean to stir all of this up," April said, shaking her head. "I meant this to be a positive thing."

"No, it's good we're talking about it. 'Cause we've been avoiding it, to be honest, and there are still a lot of unresolved questions about it," Don said.

"I liked avoiding it, personally. Let's not do this," Mike said.

"I'm with Mikey on this one. Don't need no group therapy session over this," Raph grumbled.

"You haven't been sleeping well since we got back, have you Mikey," Leo said.

"It's not related, just dreams," Mike said. "I've had them before any of this happened anyway."

Don said, "We never did ask ourselves what the whole thing was about. I mean, how much did those professors know about the tower, and why were they hiding what they were really doing. Was their interest in it purely scientific? I could understand why they didn't want to go public with what they knew about it yet. The way it distorts time would be a huge, huge deal to the scientific community and, well, really the world, once it got out. I wonder if that was the research Professor Noown stumbled onto and wanted to investigate? Could they have killed them because they found out too much? Maybe. Them going into hiding makes them seem awfully suspicious, but we don't really know for sure if they did anything wrong."

"They could be anywhere now, doing anything, not having to keep up normal appearances and day jobs anymore," Raph said.

"They're wanted by the police, now," Leo said. "They'll have to watch their backs, at least."

They all heard heavy footsteps in the hallway. Then the front door opened. "Oh my GOD," Casey wailed, coming in the door and slamming it behind him. "I'm dyin', I can't stand it. Every inch of me hurts."

"What happened, Case?" Raph asked, jumping up from the couch. "You take out a buncha Purple Dragons or somethin'?"

Casey shook his head, hunched over in exhaustion, "I wish it was just Purple Dragons."

"Somethin' worse?" Raph asked, confused. "Foot ninja?"

"Albino outer-space bank-robbing hooligans?" Mike chimed in.

"No, I —"

"Surprise," April said with a forced smile. "Casey got a job. Today was his first day..."

"8 hours on my feet!" Casey wailed. "30 minutes to eat lunch, are they crazy? I got blisters on my hands already! See?" he held them out piteously toward April.

"...at the hardware store," April continued. "That's what we're celebrating."

"Wow, way to go Casey!" Mike said, getting up. He patted Casey on the back, and Casey lurched forward off balance. Raph caught him.

"C'mon, goof ball," Raph said. "I'll help you to the table for your victory meal."

"Thanks, Raph, you're a pal," Casey said weakly. "There's a glimmer of light in the world again."

"You know," Mikey said. "Sometimes I think I'd like to just be an ordinary guy. But then I see stuff like this and I'm happy being a ninja."

They and April headed toward the kitchen. Don glanced at Leo who was intently reading something in the paper.

"What else does it say?" Don asked.

"Oh, I'm just reading the front page... it caught my eye," Leo said. He changed the angle slightly so Don could see it. The front page was all about the strange murders that had been going on.

"Ugh. I heard about that," Don said.

"It's not just the murders, though," Leo said, reading ahead in the article. "They're talking about organized crime in the city and gangs."

"Not all that 'city at war' stuff again," Don sighed. "I thought we'd put that behind us."

"It's more about how they're cracking down on it all, since they think it's some kind of new gang initiation causing the murders. But people are saying the police give special treatment to some of the larger organized groups, looking the other way. It's gotten pretty heated, it seems."

"You're thinking of the Foot?" Don asked.

"I guess. I wonder how they're faring."

"It's not our problem anymore, Leo," Don said.

"It's just we're sort of allies with the Foot clan now. At least, we're not opposed to them, so I think we should be aware of what's going on. And..." Leo put the paper aside and looked at Don. "I had high hopes for Karai. For the future of the Foot. I hate that it's such a mess already."

"Well, she came into a messy situation. But I think she can handle it. She doesn't have to have a perfect track record to be a good leader," Don said. "C'mon, let's eat."


End file.
